A Benin High Court has heard the case of alecturer of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, whowas arraigned for allegedly accepting a bribe tofacilitate the transfer of a female student to theFaculty of Law of the school.

The former Assistant Dean of UNIBEN’s Facultyof Law, Mr. Isu-Ochiora Okogeri, is beingcharged on a one-count charge of enrichinghimself as a public officer by receivingN100,000.00 from one Omoluwabi Elogho witha promise to effect her course transfer to thefaculty of law, an offence punishable underSection 98(b)(11) of the criminal code.

Edoseghe Oghogho Idahosa who is the headof the intelligence unit in the securitydepartment of the university, was Prosecution’sfirst Witness, and he was led by the statecounsel, Kenneth Ugiagbe while givingevidence in the case No MCK/94C/2013, sayingthe accused person committed the offence onDecember 31, 2012.

He told the court that the accused person, whowas also a member of Intra-Faculty TransferBoard requested and received the alleged sumof money from the prospective student, whowanted transfer from the Faculty of Arts to theFaculty of Law.

The student, according to the witness informedhis team that the lecturer had asked her tobring the cash to him in his faculty officeinstead of paying the said money into a bankaccount, and was advised to play along so thatthe lecturer could be caught red-handed.

The witness further told the court that hissurveillance team closely monitored them tothe faculty, where the accused person askedthe female student to board his SUV anddropped her off near the main gate of theschool, where he (witness) ordered the securityofficers at the gate to stop all the out-goingvehicles, as the lecturer was being monitored.

“I confronted the accused person over the saidmoney allegedly given him by the femalestudent and pleaded with him that search becarried out on his vehicle. He became shockedand dumbfounded. I also cleared the way toenable him park his car at the security officewhich he rebuffed and sped off.

“The witness further stated that they pursuedhim with a motor bike to where he went todrop the said money in the exhaust pipe of anabandoned truck in the fueling station insidethe school and drove off from the scene,unknown to him that he was closely monitored.

The security officer also told the court thathaving engaged the accused person in a hotchase, he was later apprehended near the fireservice station inside the campus and taken tothe security post for interrogation.

N17,000 was recovered from him and the saidN 100,000 was recovered from where he hadearlier hidden it, according to the securityofficer.